Materials and Manufacturing Processes

ISSN: 1042-6914 (Print) 1532-2475 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/lmmp20

Manufacturing and Sewing Performance of

Polyurethane and Polyurethane/Silicone Coated
Fabrics

Yasemin Bulut & Vildan Sular

To cite this article: Yasemin Bulut & Vildan Sular (2012) Manufacturing and Sewing Performance
of Polyurethane and Polyurethane/Silicone Coated Fabrics, Materials and Manufacturing
Processes, 28:1, 106-111, DOI: 10.1080/10426914.2012.700148

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/10426914.2012.700148

Published online: 10 Jan 2013.

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Materials and Manufacturing Processes, 28: 106–111, 2013
Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 1042-6914 print=1532-2475 online
DOI: 10.1080/10426914.2012.700148

Manufacturing and Sewing Performance of Polyurethane and

Polyurethane/Silicone Coated Fabrics
Yasemin Bulut and Vildan Sular

Textile Engineering Department, Dokuz Eylul University, Tinaztepe Campus, Izmir, Turkey

In this research, polyurethane (PU) and polyurethane/silicone (PU/silicone) coated fabrics were manufactured and the effects of coating
parameters such as coating material, coating technique, and production parameters on sewing performance of the coated fabrics were inves-
tigated. During manufacturing processes, one fabric sample having cotton as raw material and having plain weave was used as the base
fabric. The base fabric was coated with two coating materials as PU and PU/silicone by two coating techniques such as rotary screen coat-
ing and blade coating with systematically changing production parameters (screen pressure and contact angle). Therefore, twelve coated
fabric samples having different technical specifications were produced. Due to the limited number of studies in related literature, sewing
performance of the coated fabrics was investigated by the tensile properties of the unsewn and the sewn fabrics and also the seam efficiency
values were compared. Variance analyses were used to determine and evaluate the effects of coating parameters on seam performance of the
coated fabrics.

Keywords Coating; Efficiency; Fabric; Polyurethane; Sewing; Silicone; Tensile.

INTRODUCTION and Poynor’s [5] research revealed that seam efficiency

The apparel quality is a function of various para-
meters including aesthetic appearance of the fabric or
the garment, handle and properties of the fabric, and
also sewing performance. Seaming is the final step in
the process to manufacture the product and obtaining
strength and quality. Maximize a potential seam to
ensure that seam will interact with the components of
the fabric to ensure the best product durability [1].
Seams are exposed to cyclic loading during daily use
that causes several seam defects, such as seam slippage
and fabric strength reduction. The measurement of the
loss in fabric strength due to needle damage consists of
sewing a seam in the fabric, breaking the fabric at the
line of stitching, and establishing a ratio between the
original and seamed fabric strength [2]. Seam slippage
(opening) is a mode of failure evidenced by yarn move-
ment at either side of the seam creating a gap or opening
[3]. The seam slippage produces displacement of one
yarn system in the fabric against the other, which causes
opening in the fabric to take place [4]. Seam efficiency is
a function of compatibility between the fashion fabric,
sewing thread, yarn size, needle, tension, seam type,
and stitch density [5].
Literature review focuses on the effects of structural
properties of fabric and sewing thread on sewability of
clothing fabrics. Sundaresan et al. [6] reported the
influence of structural parameters of sewing threads on
fabric strength reduction. The findings of Chowdhary
Received February 15, 2012; Accepted May 3, 2012
Address correspondence to Yasemin Bulut, Dokuz Eylul
University, Textile Engineering Department, Buca 35160, Izmir, Turkey;
E-mail: yasemin.bulut@deu.edu.tr, yaseminbulut09@gmail.com
differed with varying stitch densities and increased to
optimum density. The influences of sewing thread thick-
ness and fabric structure on seam performance were
studied by Gurarda [2]. Nayak et al. [7] also focused
on the effects of Lycra percentage and silicone finish
of fabric and the type of sewing thread on sewability.
Gurarda and Meric [3] investigated the effects of
repeated extension and recovery on seam slippage and
grinning behavior of elastic woven fabrics with changing
structural properties.
Coated fabrics behave much different from uncoated
fabrics during deformation, so it is essential to have
enough understanding of their behavior during wear
[8]. According to some results from several experimental
investigations, coating increases stiffness and tensile
properties whereas reduces the tear strength of woven
fabrics [8–13]. In wide range of applications of textile
industry from protective clothing to medical substrates,
it is necessary to apply sewing operations to coated
fabrics but, literature review on sewability of coated fab-
rics provides limited knowledge on relationship between
coating parameters and sewability of coated fabrics. The
present study focuses on the production of coated fab-
rics with systematically changing coating parameters
and investigates the effects of coating material, coating
technique and production parameters on sewing perfor-
mance of coated fabrics.
MATERIAL AND METHOD
In this study, coated fabrics were produced under con-
trolled mill conditions by using cotton plain fabric
(Table 1) as the base fabric and two coating materials
were used for the production as PU and PU=silicone.

106
POLYURETHANE AND POLYURETHAN/SILCONE COATED FABRICS 107
TABLE 1.— The physical parameters of the base fabric and the production plan of coated fabrics.

Base fabric Yarn setting (threads=cm) Yarn linear density (tex) Mass per unit area (g=m2)

100% cotton Warp Weft Warp Weft 122.0

Plain weave 51 29 14.8 14.8
Coated fabric code Coating material Coating technique Production parameters
PR1, PR2, PR3 PU Rotary screen Press: 2, 4, 6
SR1, SR2, SR3 PU=silicone Rotary screen Press: 2, 4, 6
PB1, PB2, PB3 PU Blade Contact angle: 20, 25, 30
SB1, SB2, SB3 PU=silicone Blade Contact angle: 20, 25, 30

P: Polyurethane (PU); R: Rotary screen; B: Blade; S: PU=silicone; 1, 2, 3: Production parameters.

at 170
C. The production plan and test sample codes are

FIGURE 1.—Schematic diagrams of coating techniques used in experi-
mental study (a) blade coating [14] and (b) rotary screen coating [15] (color
figure available online).
The base fabric was coated with these coating materials
as single-coat by rotary screen coating and blade coating
(Fig. 1). All of the coated fabrics were manufactured by
Stork CT4 coating machine under the same conditions
with systematically changing production parameters
giving totally twelve coated test samples.
The base fabric was singed, desized, treated with
oxidative caustic, scoured, and dried. The base fabric
was dyed with reactive dyes by pad batch process. The pre-
treated and dyed fabric was washed and dried prior to
coating process. Then, the coated fabrics were dried at
140
C and cured at the speed of 24 m=min for 45 seconds
given in Table 1.
Figure 2 shows the sewing process specifications and
dimensions of the unsewn and the sewn fabric samples
for tensile tests. Five specimens for each fabric sample
were tested in warp and weft directions and grab break-
ing strength tests of the unsewn and the sewn fabrics
were carried out by using Instron 4411 model Universal
Tensile Testing Machine in accordance with ISO
13936-1 [16].
Then, the breaking strength and the breaking elonga-
tion of every test sample were evaluated and the seam
efficiency values were calculated to have a better under-
standing about sewing performance by using the follow-
ing formula [17]:
Seamtensilestrength
Seam Efficiencyð%Þ :  100 ð1Þ
Fabrictensilestrength
In Eq. (1), seam tensile strength and fabric tensile
strength denote tensile strength of the sewn and the
unsewn fabric samples, respectively. Seam efficiency is
in sewn fabrics is the ratio, expressed as a percentage,
of the breaking force required to rupture a sewn seam
to that required to rupture the fabric [17].
To determine the effects of coating material and pro-
duction parameters on sewing performance, all the data

FIGURE 2.—Preparation of test specimens for tensile tests.

108 Y. BULUT AND V. SULAR

TABLE 2.— The tensile properties of unsewn and sewn test fabrics and the seam efficiency results.

Breaking Strength (N) Breaking Elongation (%)

Unsewn Sewn Unsewn Sewn Seam Efficiency (%)

Sample code Warp Weft Warp Weft Warp Weft Warp Weft Warp Weft

Base 462.9 193.8 282.3 154.3 9.2 14.8 16.0 18.0 61.0 79.6
PR1 483.8 225.9 315.9 189.9 7.5 15.8 14.6 18.5 65.3 84.1
PR2 502.6 240.4 316.8 185.5 7.1 15.8 13.1 17.7 63.0 77.2
PR3 541.6 200.7 324.2 191.0 7.0 16.1 13.3 18.3 59.9 95.1
PB1 490.5 217.3 314.6 189.1 6.2 15.4 14.9 17.9 74.0 87.0
PB2 464.5 214.9 295.0 184.0 6.9 15.5 15.0 17.6 65.5 83.6
PB3 499.4 215.9 303.1 177.5 6.4 15.1 15.8 18.4 67.4 83.5
SR1 456.0 205.6 337.4 178.9 7.4 15.5 14.1 18.9 64.1 87.0
SR2 511.1 208.9 334.9 174.7 6.8 16.0 10.9 19.0 63.5 85.6
SR3 514.8 212.2 346.9 177.3 6.9 15.7 14.5 19.1 60.7 82.2
SB1 384.2 206.4 328.7 174.8 6.7 15.6 17.3 19.2 85.6 84.7
SB2 425.7 203.1 298.3 176.5 7.9 15.5 15.9 19.9 70.1 86.9
SB3 457.5 192.8 303.5 165.7 7.0 15.3 16.0 18.5 66.3 86.0

were analyzed with variance analyses and the interaction
plots were prepared for two coating techniques.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Tensile Properties of Unsewn and Sewn Coated Fabrics
In order to better appreciate the effects of coating
parameters on seam behavior of the coated fabrics, the
tensile test, and seam efficiency results are tabulated in
Table 2. The coating generally causes increments in the
breaking strength values but brings on decrements in
the breaking elongation values for all varying coating
parameters when these tensile properties were compared
with those of the base fabric. By restricting yarn move-
ment in fabric structure, coating causes fabric break as
a whole, and this provides increments in the breaking
strength results. Furthermore by increasing rigidity
and inflexibility of coated fabrics, coating hinders fabric
to elongate under applied force. The findings also
revealed that the unsewn coated fabrics were dramati-
cally stronger than the sewn coated fabrics in both direc-
tions although coating process made a high contribution
to the tensile strength of the coated fabrics.
Close examination of the values summarized in
Fig. 3(a,b) indicate that the breaking strength of the
unsewn and the sewn fabrics show an increasing trend
with increasing press in rotary screen technique. This
increase may be an outcome of being more efficient for
much more penetration of coating material into fabric
structure for both PU and PU=silicone coated fabrics
in both directions. But for the blade coated samples,
there is no systematically change noticed according to
the production parameters. Comparing the effects of
coating material, the unsewn and the sewn PU coated
fabric samples show generally better breaking strength
values for both directions. One can easily figure out
from Fig. 4(a,b) that the sewn fabrics have noticeably
higher elongation values determined in all directions.
In addition, no seam slippage and no sewing thread
breaking were observed during all the tests.
To examine the effects of coating material and coating
production parameters statistically, the test results were
seperately analyzed taking into account two coating
techniques by variance analyses as presented in Table 3.
According to the variance analyses results based on
rotary screen coating, the effects of coating material

FIGURE 3.—The breaking strength of unsewn and sewn base and coated fabrics (a) warp direction and (b) weft direction.
POLYURETHANE AND POLYURETHAN/SILCONE COATED FABRICS 109

FIGURE 4.—The breaking elongation of unsewn and sewn base and coated fabrics (a) warp direction and (b) weft direction.

on the breaking properties of sewn fabric in weft generally in warp direction and the breaking strength of
direction are statistically significant (p < 0.05). In sewn fabric in weft direction are statisticaly significant
addition, the effects of coating material on the breaking (p < 0.05). Furthermore, the influence of coating
strength of the sewn fabric in warp direction and the material on the breaking elongation of sewn fabric in
breaking strength of the unsewn fabric in weft direction both directions are also statistically significant
are also statistically significant (p < 0.05). The variance (p < 0.05).
analyses results indicate that the changes in production When the seam efficiency is considered, it is important
parameters have statistically significant effects on the to emphasize that the effects of coating material and
breaking properties of the unsewn fabrics in warp production parameters on the seam efficiency in warp
direction (p < 0.05). direction are statistically significant for both coating
When the results of variance analysis based on direct techniques (p < 0.05). Also the effect of coating material
coating technique is examined, it is noteworthy to men- for rotary screen coating have found statistically signifi-
tion that the effects of coating material and production cant on the seam efficiency in weft direction.
parameters on the breaking properties of unsewn fabric
Seam Efficiency of Coated Fabrics
Seam efficiency mainly depends upon the dimensional
TABLE 3.— Variance analyses results of the coated fabrics to show the and surface characteristics of the sewing thread, the ten-
effects of coating material and production parameters on fabric properties.
sile behavior of fabrics and sewing thread, the combi-
Coating technique nation of fabric and sewing thread, and the machine
and process parameters [7]. Figure 5 presents the seam
Rotary screen Blade coating efficiency of the coated fabrics, and the effects of coating
Source Dependent variable p p
on seam efficiency were explained in the following parts.
Coating material BSUWa 0.776 0.000
BEUWa 0.807 0.001 Effect of coating material on seam efficiency. Figure 5
BSSWa 0.000 0.375 reveals that the addition of silicone material in PU coat-
BESWa 0.210 0.047 ing increases the seam efficiency values in comparison to
SeffWa 0.000 0.000 PU coated fabrics. Silicone reduces friction and provides
BSUWe 0.000 0.004 slippage between the yarns of fabric in two directions.
BEUWe 0.585 0.468 This may be the reason of positive effect. It should be
BSSWe 0.000 0.003 noted that PU coated fabrics show similar decreasing
BESWe 0.050 0.000 trends for all coated fabrics except blade coated fabrics
SeffWe 0.024 0.587 in weft direction. In the case of PU=silicone coated
Production parameters BSUWa 0.001 0.003 fabric, no systematic change is observed according to
BEUWa 0.000 0.001
production parameters for two different coating techni-
BSSWa 0.242 0.013
BESWa 0.755 0.625
ques. It is also seen that the seam efficiency values of all
SefWa 0.028 0.000 test samples are better in weft direction.
BSUWe 0.063 0.446
BEUWe 0.752 0.466 Effect of coating technique and production parameters
BSSWe 0.411 0.040 on seam efficiency. Figure 5 shows that the seam
BESWe 0.748 0.729 efficiency results of PU=silicone blade coated fabrics
SeffWe 0.072 0.707 are better than those of rotary screen coated fabrics
especially in warp direction. It is determined that influ-
BS: Breaking Strength; BE: Breaking Elongation; U: Unsewn; S: Sewn; Wa: Warp
and We: Weft; Seff: Seam efficiency. ence of the change in production parameters from ‘‘1’’

Statistically significant at 95% confidence level. to ‘‘2’’ causes decreasing trend on seam efficiency values
110
FIGURE 5.—The interactions between coating material and production parameters on seam efficiency.
for two coating techniques. But no systematic change is
noticed in the case of changing the production para-
meters from ‘‘2’’ to ‘‘3’’. Table 2 presents that SB1 is
observed to have the highest seam efficiency value in
warp direction while PR3 has the lowest. It means that
sewing process causes slightly decrease in the breaking
strength of SB1 in contrary to the rest of the coated fab-
rics although decrements in the breaking strength values
are observed only for this fabric after coating. This situ-
ation is in contrary to PR3 which has the highest break-
ing strength and the lowest seam efficiency values in
warp direction after coating. In that situation, it may
not be possible to say that the coated fabrics which have
the highest breaking strength will have the highest seam
efficiency values and vice versa.
CONCLUSION
In this study, sewing performance of coated fabrics
manufactured with systematically changing coating
parameters was investigated. As a conclusion, it is
revealed that coating causes increase in the breaking
strength but reduces the breaking elongation of the base
fabric for all varying coating parameters by restricting
warp and weft yarn movement in fabric structure. More-
over, the unsewn coated fabrics were dramatically stron-
ger than the sewn coated fabrics in both directions
although coating process made a high contribution to
tensile strength of the coated fabrics.
The breaking strength results of the unsewn and
the sewn coated fabrics show increasing trends with
Y. BULUT AND V. SULAR
increasing press value in rotary screen technique due
to being more efficient for much more penetration of
coating material into fabric structure for all coated fab-
rics in both directions. But for the samples coated by
blade coating, there is no systematically change observed
according to production parameters.
The PU coated fabrics are determined to have higher
breaking strength values of the unsewn and the sewn
fabrics whereas addition of silicone material provides
better seam efficiency of PU=silicone coated fabrics by
reducing friction and providing slippage between the
yarns of fabric. In addition, no seam slippage and no
sewing thread breaking were observed during all the
tests. For further studies, the effect of coating para-
meters, those different from this study may be investi-
gated, and the results of this study may be helpful to
the research which will examine the mechanical proper-
ties of coated fabrics from different perspectives.
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